Sale of 'notorious' Winnipeg apartment block could hurt affordable housing stock, advocates say

A low-income West-End apartment building that was plagued with problems is now up for sale months after residents were forced out due to failed safety inspections, but housing advocates worry it could mean even fewer spots for those who desperately need them.

Adanac Apartments, a 46-suite apartment block at 737 and 743 Sargent Avenue, was seized as part of a receivership granted by the Winnipeg Court of King's Bench last December. It was built in 1914 and is currently on the market for $2.6 million, according to a recent property summary.

Residents were left scrambling when the city ordered the apartments be vacated in August, citing several fire code violations, including a fire alarm system that didn't work, missing smoke alarms, inaccessible fire extinguishers and a blocked fire escape.

"It was terrible, and the building has almost become notorious within the neighborhood for gangs and drug dealers, and violence and fires," said Marion Willis, executive director of St. Boniface Street Links an organization that helped re-house some of the building's tenants.

Willis says the Adanac is among a number of run-downbuildings that could be revamped to "solve many of the social crises that we have in this city" by housing higher-risk people, such as those struggling with mental health issues and addiction.

"I can tell you that the housing stock for vulnerable people is becoming so minimal at this point. I don't know where any of us are going to house anybody in this coming year, as we see the encampment season begin to build," Willis said.

"This whole winter has been fire after fire after fire, and [if] we don't come up with good plans for places like the Adanac, then in fact, you're just going to see more people in encampments."

Before it shut down, the fire prevention branch had visited the Adanac over 100 times since 2019, a city spokesperson previously said. Fire crews also responded to a total of 11 fires inside the building in 2022 and 2023.

CBC News reached out to Karin Harper-Penner, who owned the apartment block with her husband before it was seized, but did not hear back.

A spokesperson for Manitoba's housing department says the province is exploring a number of avenues to address the housing shortage, which includes acquisition, if it aligns with its commitment to end chronic homelessness in eight years.

"More information will come when our budget is released on April 2," they said Friday.

The Adanac wasn't "a very good place for low-income people to be living even if it was affordable," Kirsten Bernas with Manitoba's Right to Housing Coalition says.

She'd also like to see the Adanac be repurposed, and says governments need to step up to invest in social housing, because the private sector does not produce it.

"It would be a shame to see it, you know, just be turned over to another private sector developer that will charge market rents and miss an opportunity for our governments to add to the desperately needed stock of social housing in Manitoba," she said.

"We can't afford to be losing any housing units right now that are affordable to low-income people."

'Change the story of the Adanac'

The Right to Housing Coalition has identified a need for 1,000 units of social housing to be built in Manitoba each year over the next decade, according to Bernas.

"What we really need to see for affordable housing is rents that are ...set at no more than 30 per centof the household income," she said, adding that the coalition is pushing the province to include those investments in its upcoming budget.

But Willis says more housing units won't solve the problem on its own. Programming is also needed to support higher-risk people in those units to address the roots of social problems and decrease the number of fires and calls to police.

WATCH | 'Terrible' Winnipeg apartment block up for sale:

West End apartment building plagued with problems now up for sale

7 months ago

Duration 2:13

A low-income West End apartment building that was plagued with problems is now up for sale months after residents were forced out due to failed safety inspections, but housing advocates worry it could mean even fewer spots for those who desperately need them.

Landlords and property managers are also key when it comes to housing people, but Willis says they need to have "some reason to believe that it's not going to cost them their life investment to do that" and should not be demonized for buildings that turn out like the Adanac did.

"We've housed nearly 1,000 people in the last 36 months. and so we know most of these property managers," she said. "I can tell you the level of damage in those buildings is beyond what they will ever be able to pay for with the rent that they receive."

Atransformation of the West End apartment blockto help vulnerable people could"change the story of the Adanac" and its relationship to thecommunity, Willis says.

"But moreover, [it] can change thestory we tell about how we're addressing mental health, addictions, homelessness, crime ...and all of these issues in the city of Winnipeg."